Melbourne Instruments Roto-Control Motorised MIDI Controller

The Melbourne Instruments Roto-Control is a compact desktop MIDI controller built around eight motorised, touch-sensitive knobs. It is for producers who want hands-on control of their DAW mixer and plugins in Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio, Logic Pro or Cycling '74 Max, and for players who want to control external MIDI hardware with or without a computer.

• Motorised knobs: 8 touch-sensitive knobs with haptic feedback and instant recall, each settable as smooth, stepped or centre-detented for panning
• Visual feedback: 9 high-resolution IPS displays and 16 backlit RGB buttons, with interchangeable MX-compatible keycaps
• MIX mode: track names and colours appear automatically from Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio and Logic Pro, covering levels, pans, sends, mute, solo and record arm
• PLUGIN mode: touch-and-learn mapping stored on the unit for up to 64 plugins with 128 parameters each
• MIDI mode: stand-alone control of hardware over 5-pin DIN in/out/thru or USB, with up to 64 setups
• Motion Recorder: record and loop knob movements on up to 8 parameters, synced to internal or external MIDI clock

The knobs use brushless drone motors with contactless optical sensing, the same approach Melbourne Instruments uses in its synths, and are rated for more than 50 million cycles. Because they are motorised, they jump to the current value whenever you change track, bank or plugin, so there are no parameter jumps or pickup modes to deal with.

In MIX mode the Roto-Control follows your session without manual mapping: names and colours update as you change tracks, and you bank and page through as many tracks as the project has. In PLUGIN mode you touch a knob and move a parameter on screen to assign it; the mapping is saved with the plugin name and parameter labels, and the next time you select that plugin the unit loads it and moves the knobs into position. Plugins can also be browsed and selected from the hardware. Logic Pro users get up to eight pages of controls per plugin plus a SMART mode that mirrors Logic's Smart Controls with up to 16 parameters and no setup. Max is supported natively in PLUGIN mode for custom devices.

For hardware setups, buttons can send CCs, Program Changes and notes, and the Motion Recorder loops movements in 16, 32, 48 or 64 steps with forward, backward, random and ping-pong playback. The Roto-Setup editor for Windows and macOS handles haptic behaviour, CC and NRPN settings, resolution, labels, colours, setup import and export, and firmware updates. Community mappings for instruments from Chase Bliss, Elektron, Moog and Waldorf are shared through the Melbourne Instruments Exchange, and a public API is available. The unit is powered over USB-C and comes in an ABS and metal case weighing 715 g.